Linn County housing program exceeds goals, will continue for second year

CEDAR RAPIDS — A pilot program meant to connect “housing-challenged” tenants with private landlords has exceeded expectations in its first year and is expected to continue into 2026.

Area housing partners this week announced aggregated outcomes from year one of the Landlord and Tenant Success Initiative, which launched in late 2024 using a $100,000 gift from Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust.

The program provided financial incentives to Linn County landlords to offer housing to individuals who have had difficulty getting approved for leases in the past. The goal was to house 30 individuals within a year, which was ultimately surpassed.

Now, private and public partners are exploring opportunities to sustain and expand the initiative moving forward.

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Background

The Landlord and Tenant Success Initiative was unveiled last year by Linn County’s Alliance for Equitable Housing, a coalition of housing, local government entities, nonprofits, philanthropic partners and other organizations working to address homelessness and housing insecurity.

The overarching goal was to leverage the $100,000 from Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust to incentivize landlords to lease to tenants who might otherwise be denied due to issues such as past evictions or criminal history.

The program provided landlords who accepted those tenants with a $1,000 cash bonus and access to a risk-mitigation fund that could be used to pay for charges incurred because of the tenant such as damage repairs or the cost of an eviction filing, should one become necessary.

Participating tenants were expected to complete a tenant education course, work with a case manager to set and meet housing stability goals and to pass quarterly in-unit inspections to ensure the property was being maintained.

“We’re doing a different level of case management than what’s typically done … because we’re going into units, meeting people where they are and providing that extra level of accountability,” said J’nae Peterman, homeless systems manager for the Housing Trust Fund for Linn County.

Launched as a one-year pilot, the initial goal was to house 30 individuals.

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What’s happened since?

The program ultimately enrolled 44 people within its first year, 37 of whom have been successfully housed. Across the board, participants’ pass rate on in-unit inspections was 97 percent and there are zero uncured lease violations to date.

The initiative proved cost-effective, too, with the program spending less than 50 percent of its total pilot budget from CRBT — in part because of the low frequency with which landlords required access to the risk management fund.

Overall, less than 1 percent of the total program budget was used for damage repairs.

Peterman said those figures go to show how “intentional case management, regular inspections and modest financial incentives can stabilize households, protect property owners and stretch limited resources.”

The program will continue to run through at least the end of 2026 using remaining funds from CRBT, although Peterman said the goal is to identify additional private partners interested in helping it move forward.

“We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing to really refine things and make sure that we are developing a strong program that can move out of the pilot phase,” she said. “We would love to see other community partners and funders step forward in the future to keep this thing going.”

Moving forward, the program will be overseen by a full-time landlord liaison position within the Housing Trust Fund of Linn County who will be responsible for acting as a go-between for housing agencies, clients and private landlords.

A similar position was previously held within partner agency Waypoint Services, although reductions in grant funding threatened the role.

The city of Cedar Rapids is stepping in to fill the gap, however, with the City Council recently approving an allocation of up to $100,000 to the Housing Trust Fund for Linn County to cover the position through the end of 2026.

Cedar Rapids Housing Services Manager Laura Shaw said the city identified federal funds it could funnel toward the position, with future funding expected to come from outside agencies and grants.

“One of the biggest keys to keeping people stably housed and reducing homelessness in our community is giving them support” through robust case management, Shaw said. “This is another way for us as a city to support that.”

Comments: grace.nieland@thegazette.com